Thursday, April 26, 2012

Earlier this year Marriott opened up two new hotels that are actually attached to each other at the Calgary International Airport. Located on the Southeast end near the intersection of McKnight and Barlow Trails, the Courtyard Calgary Airport and Residence Inn Calgary Airport are the newest options for travellers who are transiting via YYC or for those who have early flights and want to stay near the airport.

Both hotels are participating in a new bonus points offer from Marriott Rewards that offer 1,500 Bonus Points per night (max 7,500 bonus points per stay) at 4 participating Marriott hotels across Alberta until June 17.The Participating Hotels are as follows: Calgary Marriott Downtown Hotel Courtyard Calgary Airport Residence Inn Calgary Airport Edmonton Marriott at River Cree Resort For more details or to book online visit the offer page on Marriott.com

A quick check of rates at the Courtyard Calgary Airport has this bonus offer pricing out the same as their standard rate so this is a good points deal (sometimes these points offers price out higher than the lowest available rates or standard rates)

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Aeroplan has released their next batch of flight promos with a big focus on Calgary this time. The winter promos they ran (Boundless Bonus Miles) did not have too many YYC offers and perhaps Calgary flyers complained or Aeroplan realized they ignored us or Air Canada is feeling the heat from other airlines on these routes or most likely it is a combination of all of these.

The first promo is for International flights including the recently increase Tokyo Narita route:

Between April 30 and June 22, 2012, register and fly on scheduled flights operated by Air Canada between Calgary and Tokyo Narita or London Heathrow and earn:
2,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for every roundtrip or 2 one-way flight segments in Economy Class
5,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for every roundtrip or 2 one-way flight segments in Executive First
Register Online (Registration is required)

The second promo is for flights in Western Canada + Seattle & Portland and is part of Air Canada's 75th Anniversary:

Between April 30 and August 31, 2012, register* and fly to earn up to 7,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on eligible scheduled flights operated by Air Canada and Air Canada Express (operated by Jazz, Sky Regional and Air Georgian) to these select destinations within Canada and between Canada and the U.S.. The routes and bonuses are as follows:

The start of 2012 is very promising for YYC in terms of passenger statistics. While 2011 saw a range of -1.1 to 3.2% passenger number changes over 2010, this year is seeing much larger increases so far. Now, it may be a little early to say this will be a banner year for YYC after only two months of statistics (with one of this months providing an extra day of traffic: February 29th) but I believe the numbers can be used as a good indicator of where the airport and this city is heading as both January and February broke the million passenger barriers for the first time.

January
Broken down domestic and transborder traffic were the sectors driving
the larger numbers with increases of 7.0% and 6.7% respectively while International traffic saw a decrease of 3.5%.

Febraury
The large growth in domestic and transborder traffic continued in February but also saw International traffic get back into the positive numbers. The largest percentage increase of 13.1% came from transborder traffic while domestic traffic increased 7.2% and International 2.9%